5 year anniversary

Here's To US! because we are LUCKY!

 today spence and i get to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.  so of course that means its time to take a walk down memory lane.  i can't believe its been only 6 1/2 years since i met spence, we had a great time getting to know each other, dating, getting married, and now raising the twins together.   i remember when i met him i was 25yrs old and i thought he was way to wild and crazy for me, i would never be able to keep up.  no that i'm reaching 32yrs old, i have had to resort to drinking diet coke to keep up with him.  over the years we have had a lot of fun together, and the fun has really just begun, because we have a lifetime and eternity together!

this is us back when we were dating in the old (stolen) honda.  this picture is fun because it seems like we were always going somewhere fun, and we were lucky enough to spend a lot of our dates with his super fun sister kristy.

so here is to the dating years....

 kings peak
 i knew he loved me when i threw up all over...be pretending it wasn't a big deal

 we got engaged!

literally sealed the deal.

married in the salt lake temple.  i know everyone says their wedding day was the happiest day of their life, but honestly it was a great day! one i had looked forward to my whole life.

1st year of marriage....what did we do?

 finally went on our honeymoon to cancun, after spence graduated from BYU.  our original honeymoon was postponed due to a hurricane.

 we backed up and moved to Arizona for med school.

 we spent our first anniversary in the beautiful teton mountains and yellowstone.

 our 2nd year of marriage....

 we spent our anniversary in havasupai, still one of spence's favorite places! i thought i was going to die of heat exhaustion...little did we know i was 4wks pregnant with the twins!

 a quick spring break trip to san diego

 of course the biggest thing that happened our 2nd year of marriage, we found out the shocking news that we were having twins!!

it was the hardest year as i literally spent 5months in bed, spence became the house wife and husband.  i really had to relay on spence for everything during those months, everything.  it made our marriage stronger, and our friendship better, 

and helped us realize how special it is to become parents.

me huge, pregnant, uncomfortable, but loving every minute.

(if we ever get pregnant again i would love to be able to
 know what it feels like to be pregnant and stand up)

 Q T Bugs one month old!

our 3rd year of marriage....

we spent our anniversary sending justin off to serve a mission. (he comes later this month!)

 went to mexico with some friends.  

spence did his 3rd year clinical rotations, and i stayed at home with the girls trying to get them to sleep (so i could sleep) 

did my first triathlon in Page UT with Jo, 6months after having twins. i still don't know how i did that.  it took forever to re-learn how to walk, and run, and swim. 

 the twins started to learn all sorts of new things....eating solids, crawling, talking, walking, playing...

went home to utah for a miracle wedding of the century!

moved back home to utah for the year while spence traveled the country living in a new place every 30 days. funny to think all our stuff can fit in one trailer 16ft by 7ft. at least we can say we diffidently aren't hoarders.

learned all sorts of fun stuff from our PAPPY.  like walking, eating with utensils, climbing stairs, and using our manners, playing with fritz! 

 our 4th year of marriage

even though 6 of the 12months in our 4th year of marriage we spent apart.  it was still a great year. i lived with my parents in elk ridge and spence traveled from colorado to detroit, to south bend indiana, to seatle, to texas, and finally back with us to utah.  spence came home about every 30days for a short weekend and when he was here we partied!!

 we watched signing time....still the twins and my favorite show to watch.  we learned to sign really well, making communication so much easier!!

 we missed our papa a lot.

 and he missed us too!

finally graduated med school.....it was CRAZY! school is never easy. 

i love this pic because it shows how crazy life is..:)

i was able to accomplish one of my life long desires and sponsored a running race.  the shamrock shimmy.  it will happen again this year date tba, making it an annual event! so glad to have started a non-profit organization raising money for high school scholarships.  and spence supported me through all the hard work and long days of organizing such a big event.

i went back to work at the OBGYN's office and was able to save money to send us on our graduation cruise and vacation of a life time. (enjoyed working again too! it was so great to have a break from being a mom, and putting on the hat of a medical assistant again)

and of course the twiners turned 2! still can't believe they are 2 years old!

they are so cute and so fun.  honestly the best parts of both spence and me have been mixed together to make these sweet amazing girls.  we are so lucky to have them.

 and of course we have moved again, this time to texas.  this is the good-bye picture of my amazing family that awaits us in Utah...only 3more years and we'll be back (fingers crossed)

we have done a lot over the past 5years.  so many good exciting memories! we have accomplished great things together, and we are still working to accomplish much more.  

life isn't as spontaneous as it was when we were dating, but i can honestly say that the best part of my day, and the girls day, is when we here the garage door open, because we know spence is finally home.  life is just better when he is around!

i always dreamed of falling in love and getting married....sometimes i can't believe that all of this has really happened.  but it has! i am so grateful that i met spence and somehow we have been able to keep falling in love everyday since we met.  

so here is to all the memories and to many many more!

and since spence and i have never really been able to "be about gifts" (because we are poor, no really, we are poorer than a freshman in college who's financial aid didn't come through)
so this is what we got for our anniversary! i wanted to do a traditional wedding gift which for 5 years is: Wood, representing strength and a solidified relationship, and silverware, representing connectedness.  

but instead we got 

a new vacuum from walmart! the hand-me down we had from DJ and Brandon Meis finally blew up. literally the back panel just blew off one day.  and i have to say it works pretty good for 49.99.  so instead of getting a gift that represents strenght, we got a gift that will suck up all the crap!:) which is even better right!!?

happy anniversary babe!
i can't wait to see what our 5th year 
                          of marriage brings!